This invention relates to the novel sharing of the color of a mood stone adorned device utilizing a communications network. A system and method for sharing indications of emotion between a mood sensing sharing device and a mobile communications apparatus are provided.
Contemporary thermochromic liquid crystals, including those used clinically in thermometers and those used in mood stone adorned jewelry, differ only slightly from the temperature sensitive cholesteric liquid crystals devices fabricated and refined in the 1960s and 1970s. Today's marketed thermochromic liquid crystals (TLC) owe their existence, in part, to the pioneering teachings of Donald Churchill, James V. Cartmell, and Robert Miller in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 618,751 (Feb. 27, 1967), which conveys how the encapsulation of cholesteric liquid crystals protects the liquid crystals from degraded color-scattering as a consequence of exposure to dust, moisture, and other debasing substances over time. The same trio later combined with Theodore L. Hodson Bellbrook, U.S. Pat. No. 3,585,381 (Apr. 14, 1969) to refine the manufacture of encapsulated cholesteric liquid crystal displays, which involves adding a smooth transparent surface layer on top of and in direct contact with the liquid crystal layer to impart improved color purity and contrast qualities. Further improvements to color brightness and to lifetime, through the mixing of nematic liquid crystals with cholesteric liquid crystals, were contributed by Cartmell et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,720,623 (Mar. 13, 1973). With the foundation laid, new applications of TLC emerged, including decorative cholesteric stones, i.e., mood stones, U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,945; clinical thermometers, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,951,133 and 4,747,413; decorative animal collars with mood stones, U.S. Pat. No. 6,675,744; and skin jewelry consisting of mood stones that can be attached to the skin by means of an adhesive layer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,220,016. However, none of these mood stone implements embody a means for sharing the color state of the mood stone over a communications network.
The first mood rings were marketed in the early 1970s. Color changes in the stone of a mood ring, a mood bracelet, or other piece of mood stone adorned jewelry are believed to be related to changes in a wearer's mood—which is thought to be correlated with changes in the wearer's skin temperature. An included TLC layer, which comprises encapsulated cholesteric liquid crystals, is the mechanism that produces a change in the color displayed on the mood stone commensurate with a change in skin temperature. More specifically, the color-scattering, i.e., reflective properties of the TLC layer vary with temperature. This means that different light waves (i.e., colors) will be reflected in the mood stone as the wearer's skin temperature changes.
Typically, the visible color band of the TLC layer is formulated to range from gray at the lowest measurable skin temperature (corresponding to a tense mood), to green for a normal skin temperature (corresponding to a relaxed mood), and to dark blue for the highest measurable skin temperature (corresponding to a happy, passionate mood); though some mood stones use different liquid crystals which exhibit other colors in response to changes in the heat transferred from the skin to the mood stone. Temperatures below the lower bound of the range and above the upper bound of the range for the TLC layer are shown as black.
All prior art mood stone adorned jewelry, whether in the setting of a ring, in the setting of bracelet, in the setting of pendant, or in any other setting, require that an observer of the color of the mood stone be within eyesight distance from the mood stone to view the color. Furthermore, all prior art mood stone adorned jewelry lack an apparatus, a means, or both to share the color of a mood stone therein, corresponding to the mood of the wearer, with other interested observers who are out of eyesight distance from the mood stone. As the sharing of mood is highly desirable, regardless of the location of the person or persons with whom one wishes to socialize, the lack of a mood sharing capability, which is independent of physical location, is a limitation of all prior art mood stone jewelry.
An objective of the present invention is overcome this limitation of prior art mood stone jewelry, by providing a sharing means for the color of a mood stone, which is independent of the location of interested observers (i.e., contacts).
This invention has other advantageous objects and features which will be apparent from following. It should be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments illustrated and described, as it may be varied within the scope of the appended claims.